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Topic: 2011 Review thread (Read 28215 times)

So I have no idea where to put this for some reason so for now I'm putting it here

can we get a 2011 review thread going here? I'll start off.

Hotel and location-

Pro:I got to say, I loved the hotel. I had no real major problems with the elevators which was a huge relief as compared to previos years. On occasion they would be crowded but not to the point where we needed to actually get single file lines going. And everyone seemed pretty responsable about following the 8 person per lift limit (I saw it go over a few times but nothing majorly horrid) an the stairs quickly became a good option to. So getting around was no difficulty. The park was a thrill, it made for good hanging out and I really enjoyed it. The the fact that the market was going on also made it really fun to participate in. And it opened up more mid day food options. The staff were also incredibly nice and polite, at least in my experience. And more than willing to help when I found I needed it. But that is just my experience with the Hilton staff, as I had next to nil interaction with any Red Lion staff.

Con:The distance between the red lion and the hilton was a lot farther than I thought it was going to be. While it wasnt horrid it certainly made it difficult to go back in forth (especially when I had those high heels on, man was that painful) it really made me want to visit the exhibitors hall less and I tended to just stay at the Hitlon because I didn't want to walk between the two.

Dealers Hall-

Pros- The line wasn't as bad as I was expecting, and I did find some good purchases and came home with a lot of new figurines, posters, books, ect. I really stocked up on my merchandise which I enjoyed and the vendors themselves were very polite to me and I enjoyed see'ing all they had to offer. I also enjoyed vendors being open to filling out the forms to exempt Oregon attendees from sales tax, unlike what I encountered last time at the Vancouver Hilton.

Cons-way to small. Not just the room (though it was) but the amount of vendors as well. I knew there wouldn't be as many as usual but this was a very very small vendors hall compared to normal. I think I did a full tour of it in two minutes and had already seen every stall and it's contents. Most of the stalls sold the same things, though I did like that there was some variety between them it still disappointed me at the lack of options there were to choose from. As for the room size being to small it felt very claustrophobic and I got very crowded, stepped on, and generally uncomfortable. I really didn't enjoy it that much, it would usually be a place I'd frequent, but I only went twice the whole con. I had no desire to go back in there after the first time, the second time was only to get things for my friends before they sold out. I also got very confused with the exit and entrance. My first time in there the exit had changed mid way through my shopping and I had to find it again, and it wasn't clearly marked at first. Second time it was better but still a hassle. I was very disappointed with it this year. Though I do understand that the only other option seemed to be that garage, I feel as a consumer I would have taken the garage and it's heat to have more vendors and room to move around in. With so many people crammed into that tiny vendors hall it was boiling in there anyways.

Con staff:

Pros:Very polite. I had absolutely no issues with staff and instead found them to be the most helpful this year than any before. They were patient with me and explained for instance why I couldn't go back into my panel after I left for the bathroom (the room was already passed fire code so they needed to wait for some to come out then send others back in, it was only like a minute long wait thankfully and this only happened on one panel) I didn't feel any one was condescending and they were generally helpful.

Cons:Dont really have any. For the first year I had no real bad encounters with any staff member and instead just really appreciated their help every time I ran into one.

Panels:

Pros: SO MUCH FUN. I hardly ever go to panels and I'll be frank in saying I wasn't planning on attending any this year either. But I ended up going to a few anyways, and ended up attending more than all my previos years (06-09) put together. The line up of panels was great and I really enjoyed it, whose line (you cant say that at con! addition) was amazing fun and I really enjoyed every bit of it. The roast was hilarious and the Big Chris panel was one of my highlights of the con. And my room mates all thoroughly enjoyed every panel they went to as well, and had nothing but good things to say about them.

Cons: Getting in was difficult. I had one encounter at the roast that was a bit of a hassle. I had to leave for a bit to go to the bathroom, and was told before I left by the staff member outside the door that if I left I couldn't come back right away because of fire marshel code. I was frustrated but well nature calls. Took care of it and was a bit annoyed I couldn't get back in, it wasn't even a large event like the cosplay contest. But it wasn't even that bad, the staff member explained how they had allowed to many in the panel in the first place and I just needed to wait for some one to come out before I could go in. So while I was annoyed it wasn't to big of an issue and I think I missed maybe all of 5 to 10 minutes of the panel. My only other problem was confusion with lines getting into some panels. They weren't always very clear and in one case I had been waiting for about half an hour only to be told by staff I wasn't in line and in fact the line had started some where else.

EDIT: Badge Pick up-

Just one little note I had to put into here. I went to pre reg on day 0 and I decided to wait about an hour so I would miss the line of doom. I ended up getting my badge just fine to find that it was printed wrong. The line I had to wait in to get my badge corrected was longer than the line I had to wait in to even get my badge. I was fairly disappointed with so many mishaps there but perhaps I came at the wrong time. But I was happy that at least when I got to the counter they re printed my badge to the adult one (they gave me a minor one upon picking it up) and it went smoothly and fairly quickly.

Overall-

I had a lot of fun. I was really wary to come back to Kumoricon after my experience in 09 being so bad to the point I skipped a year because I was fed up with the Portland Hilton we were in. I was pleasantly surprised to have a better time than I thought. A lot of it was due to the folks I was hanging out with, but I did thoroughly enjoy myself even if I was very disappointed in a few parts. It's encouraged me to come back to Kumoricon again and give it another shot. I had it on trial this year and it's proved it's worth. I had a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to next year.

great thread and post!! I'll try to stick to your format, with a few addendums (I was a panelist as well as in the art show, so I can provide perspective from that).

Hotels/LocationPros: I stayed in the Hilton, it was pretty nice and easy to navigate. I never had to wait long for an elevator, and the stairs were super-handy too. The event rooms were nice and big, as was the workshop room. The hallways were nice and big, and never seemed to clog badly from people hanging out.

Cons: Some of the panel rooms felt small and/or got kind of crowded. I'm not a big fan of the con being in Vancouver, but that's a personal thing because I don't have a car (although I felt like when the con was in Portland, it made it more accessible for a lot of one-day-only people). The hotels being so far apart was an issue whenever I was under time constraints to be somewhere.

Dealer's HallPros: I liked the piano in the corner, and the person/people playing fun impromptu theme songs or pop songs that everyone sang along with, that was cute. Several of the dealers were running specials.

Cons: WAY too small, especially considering the number of attendees at the con. Congestion was a major issue; it was hard to even stop and look because it was so crowded, and it certainly led to me buying less than I would have otherwise. The dealers seemed pretty miserable. It was hard to visit any of the stalls, it was even hard to leave; it took me a while of wading through people like a salmon heading upstream before I could find the exit.

Art ShowPros: The art show staff were incredibly nice and helpful. They were obviously working very hard to see to artists' needs and make sure everyone that came in had space to display/sell their work. The room itself was a good size, maybe could have been a bit larger but it wasn't overly crowded (with people; it was almost crowded with art, but not really, more just very full).

Cons: It could use more organization, more rules, and more clarity of the rules. Myself and others had a hard time understanding when to pick up art, how/when we were going to be paid for art, how the auction worked, etc. I also had a moment of panic when it seemed like (on paperwork) one of my pieces had either disappeared or had been paid for with less of the asking price, but the staff (again, super helpful and friendly and going out of their way to solve problems for me) were able to figure out that it was a paperwork error, and everything turned out okay. I think, though, a better system could be used to prevent stuff like that from happening, and we talked a little bit about that.

Artist AlleyPros: A good variation of artists, styles, and fandoms; the artists were generally nice and friendly; the location was convenient for people that wanted to look at the art show as well. I also liked that all of the artists had a lot of product and a lot of selection within each of their booths.

Cons: ENTIRELY too small. Not only was over-crowding and congestion an issue, which made it harder to shop and to browse, but the size of it was very disappointing. I look forward to AA every year because I love buying fanart, especially buttons and prints, but this year there was not a big selection. It would make sense to me that next year, if we have the con in the same location, the dealer's room should go back in the garage (like OP said, it was hot in there still because of the over-crowding, and over-crowded to boot) and then maybe put the AA where the dealer's room was. You can fit a lot more artists than dealers in there anywho because they don't need as much space. I also had another problem that I think I need to talk to Jackie or someone about, but I'm pretty sure it would cause drama llamas here on the forums if I brought it up, so I'm going to leave it alone for now and wait until the staff has had a moment to catch their breath from the con.

Con StaffPros: OMG. This is the first year that I can say that the con staff were pretty much 100% amazing. They were helpful and friendly whenever I had questions for them as a con-goer, and then when I needed things from them as a panelist, they came through.

Cons: No complaints. There was one person who was kinda rude about one of my panels running a little late (he came in only a few minutes past when it was supposed to be over, and my panel had gotten a late start because the panel before it had run into my time), because he wanted to go to bed, which I understand, and sometimes people can be rude when they're tired. So it wasn't really an issue, although my audience was having fun and he kind of cut into that.

PanelsPros: Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to any of the big events and only a couple of the panels, but I did hear a lot of good feedback about the panels in general. Lindsey/Mouse's panels were a hit, as usual, and I feel like my panels were received pretty well (roars of laughter = a good show, yeah?).

Cons: I feel like the Doctor Who panel (Tiptoe Through the Tardis) could have used an event space; it was so popular it was full past the brim (I tried to be there for Ellen, because I love Doctor Who, and because I wrote a filk song for it this weekend that I was supposed to perform, but I could barely get in there were so many people, so I decided to go get lunch instead). I also feel like there was a lack of adult programming (by that I do not necessarily mean sexy-time programming, but programming that was geared towards an older audience and/or niches). My yuri panel was the only yuri programming there. I am actually going to submit more panels for next year 'cause I feel like we need panels for things like Japanese horror, yaoi/yuri/hentai, indie manga, etc. There is certainly a demand for it; there were people that came to my drawing panels not because they were interested in drawing, but because it was the only yuri programming, and a few enjoyed it so much they came to my other panels just because.

OverallI would definitely say I enjoyed myself. I love putting on panels, and the audience/con-goers are all great-good-spirited people, and make it really worth it for me. So I will definitely be coming back next year with the same panels, if not more. Hopefully, there will be a bigger AA space <3

Pros:The Hilton hotel was a nice setup with wide open halls and good layout, which made movement easy. The Hilton staff was nice and polite. The Con staff seemed to have a better knowledge of what was going on and where things were then the previous year. The Red Lion was understandably not as good as the Hilton but I feel the tabletop gaming / merchandise (artist alley and exhibitors) at the second location was a very good choice (also gave me some good exercise but tiring). The small store setups by hotels staff worked well and made it easy to get a quick snack or water instead of walking out around the blocks in town looking for a store.

Cons:The Washington location vs Portland location did present some problems. Some people didn't want to go as soon as washington was even mentioned (probably due to the fact they didn't know where Vancouver was and thought it was further into washington). The conference rooms were not very well vented/temperature regulated. Most panels even with a mere 20 person attendance were noticeably warmer then the halls or other areas and caused people to sweat just sitting there. The dance hall the first night around midnight had maybe 50-75 people and simply walking into the room for 2 minutes left me with a twisted face from the smell and the beginning of a sweat soaked shirt. I know it was mid 80's outside but BIG EMPHASIS ON NEEDING VENTILATION OR TEMPERATURE REGULATION inside the panels.

Dealers Hall / Artists Alley -

Pros:The first day the line was quite long for the exhibitors hall but by the second day you could pretty much walk in and move with only some bumping and squeezing. The vendors were nice and selection was varied. The Artist Alley area was well setup. I think I enjoyed the artist alley more then the exhibitors hall.

Cons:WAY to small of an area in the dealers hall, not much room in the aisles especially for someone I saw in a wheelchair who spent a good amount of time just trying to move. Constantly getting bumped and shoved, feet and heels stepped on, no room to squeeze thru at the end between Uwajimaya and the bookstore booth. For the size of the room they should have cut the current attendance inside by about 30 people to allow more movement and room. I Knew the exhibitors hall was suppose to be smaller this year but of the dealers inside there was a very small selection/variety of most items. When I did find a small item of interest I didn't purchase it as I like to purchase a couple items to make the walk back to the car worth it. The entrance / exit setup was an issue to, there should have been a sign when entering that stated "Entrance Only" and a wall sign in the back stating "Exit Only". Serious space issues in the aisles at the artists alley and I had to come back several times just to finish getting thru the couple aisles or talk to the vendors.

Tabletop Games Hall

Pros:Pretty good setup actually. I didn't spend much time here but while the aisles were a little small there was a well set amount of table space. The "store" in the corner was in taste and had a small but good selection throughout the Con so props to the company the Con picked there.Cons:While it was actually a decent temp here there was some issue at times running out of water ^_^.

Con Staff -

Pros:Very nice, was able to answer all questions I asked or at least point me straight to the person who could tell me vs last year where there seemed to be a lot more chaos and searching for someone who knew. Registration and badges pickups went AMAZINGLY well this year with their new system. The staff size seemed smaller this year but it felt much more refined and well coordinated even despite occasionally appearing a little short staffed.

Cons:Not enough cowbell.

Panels:

Pros:The panels lead by primary Con staff were good fun and lots of entertainment. Opening ceremony was great. I really did have some great fun at the Whos line is it on saturday.

Cons:very minimal panels during the hours of 10am and 7pm that interested me and left me sometimes bored during the day, rooms were hot and muggy and many people left less then halfway thru. In most cases those leading the panels didn't seem very well prepared and ran out of content quickly or had problems getting things going ie technical problems or unable to explain things very well (they seemed to be run by volunteers and outside of staff people so can't complain there). Same complaints here from attending friends as well for content/panels. The viewing rooms were good but some of the content played has been run into the ground and/or old without much interest anymore (It would have been nice to have more newer titles ie the last 3 years). Not much selection and sometimes a good hour (scheduled and sometimes due to short fall of the panel) between panels at each of the rooms. Possible thoughts here of coordinating a panel next year myself.

Cons:I will admit here that there really wasn't much for me this year. There were a LOT of half-attempted outfits that didn't give much beyond "I think I know who thats suppose to be" or *facepalm*. This lead me to put my camera away after only a couple hours on saturday where it stayed for the remainder of the convention. There were some great costumes but this year they were really few and far between. There was some real issues with the attitudes of some of them as well as I saw multiple times when they looked unhappy that someone wanted to stop them for a picture or interrupted them in some way (ie inconvenienced). I even saw one or two that told off people because the first picture wasn't good enough and they wanted another or something similar. Trying to make friends was also harder this year then any before and many seemed to have small "clicks" they would hang out in instead of general groups and events. This brought me to boredom quickly as I couldn't find much during the day to do (the couple of friends I was with had the same complaints here as well)

Overall -

Overall I know there was some new staff this year and a lot of effort was put into the Con running smoothly (and it really showed how much thought was put into operations and procedures) but the actual content of the Con itself really left me wanting more. No real "I really want to attend that" types items this year. This year would be marked as my least favorite Con for overall fun but I will come back next year as I hope the smooth operations will be joined by equally good content and entertainment.

Hotels/LocationPros: Not bad, in my opinion. Having it across two hotels really extended the availability of guest rooms, not to mention the fact that no panel i saw was pushed out so someone else could use the space. While they were a few blocks apart, walking didn't take all that much time.Amenities! (at the red lion at least)

Cons: While Vancouver is a mere few miles as the crow flies, during Friday rush-hour, it might as well have been in Eugene.Apparently downtown Vancouver becomes a ghost town on labor-day weekend, as we walked MILES to find a place to eat that wasn't a bar.

Suggestions: maybe let a few restaurant owners know that there will be an extra 4000 hungry nerds, half of which are teenagers. Hotel-2-hotel rickshaw transit!!! Exhibitor's HallPros:This may be a little prejudice, but there's something slightly symbolic about going into a basement to get your nerd stuff. Glad it was at least above ground this year. When there was a line it went pretty quick. From the back, we waited maybe 10 minutes.

Cons: Went in there all three days, but day one was most painfully obvious of how small, and HOT that area was. I swear the O2 levels were borderline M-class at best. Suggestions: Maybe an S-shape to the dealer booth placement instead of a square with entrances on opposite corners. I think there was a lot of current fighting as people went one way and then got to the exit after only having seen half the booths. Particularly traffic-prone was the booth on the far side of the entrance where there was an almost constant blockage of butts as people bent their derriere into the walkways to look at the merch.Fans! Windows! Oxygen generators!

Artist AlleyPros: Nice sale-staff. good spread of media.

Cons: Not too many complaints here. a little crowded, but still moved quickly.Suggestions: Threaten more artists to attend, so they can take all my money

Con StaffPros: Polite, informative, knowledgeable, understanding - I had no troubles with either K-con staff nor hotel staff. I lost my card night 2 and while apparently overworked and exasperated, they were still able to get me what I needed without so much as a dirty look. As compared to the two other K-con's i've attended, these folks were exceptional.

Cons: Orange shirts! D: (okay, they weren't that bad, but I had to find something to complain about)Suggestions: Whatever you did this year to keep people relaxed, keep doing it! Give the water pitcher runner a sweat towel and an otsukare when you next see them.

Panels (that I saw)Pros: Rooms were easy to find and never really over or under-filled. Body paint, beyond the basics: props, sneak peek, cosplay chess.

Cons:On a more pointed note, the shadow-runner workshop Saturday morning - the person never showed. Also, I think know there some disappointed people at the steampunk workshop of day three; I'm not saying you should be a master of your craft before you decide to run your own panel, but let's just say the people attending the steampunk workshop might want to see a nifty gadget or two.Oh, and rooms divided by folding walls - make sure the light-switches are labeled, so one panel's slideshow isn't another panel's blackout (personal beef: Mystery Game replaced with Yaoi panel at last second?! D:)Suggestions: I tread lightly here, as I know panel management is probably one of the more complex things. Wouldn't have minded seeing schedules on the room labels... maybe...just a suggestion...don't hurt me....OverallFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-...N

I really appreciate the volunteer staff who pulled it together this year.

Oh one thing that I had a slight issue with with the panel set up was noise.... I only had this trouble once when we were next to the pirate ninja dance off, but nooooiiiise. I'm not sure what can be done about this but that was some loud music and more than a little distracting at times.

Scrum yummy: Yeah, I didnt get a chance to see the AA this year but I know that was the case as I had several friends apply for a table and heard a lot were rejected. I dont think I'd mind going back into the garage. Neither situation is exactly ideal but that way there's at least more room.

I had a lot of fun this year. I thought it was well organized, not too packed (except for the dealer's room, obviously) and fun. Good space in the main room at the Hilton, I never really had to worry about missing out on any events I wanted to see.

Most of the staff were very friendly, the volunteers and maid/butlers were great too.

I was actually dissapointed, yes you read this right, dissapointed there was NO WAIT for me to get my pre-reg badge.... O___0 It was just so... odd just walking right into the garage, asking where I get my badge, walking over, getting it, and leaving one minute later. Anyway, great job there, and the lines in general, though the line to the closing ceremonies got shifted at one point making me about 16 people father back and making the people who were out the door about 30 people back as I noticed a bunch of people just come in and lean against the wall before staff could tell the people out the door they were moving it.

FINALLYYYY!!!! The screens in main events and being able to see the cosplay contest on them!! YES!! I know that's been a suggestion for a long time and it's was SO NICE to see it finally happen!!!

Hotel staff. Both were nice and pleasant, especially the Hilton staff. They always wished me a good day and opened doors for me. I think they're very smart too, probably made a bunch of sales from doing things like setting up spots to sell Pizza and Ice Cream around the con area.

The walk between hotels wasn't bad. But when you're in a huge/warm cosplay and have bad shoes... it was torture, My main concern is the walk at night time. I hear about a few creepers out around that area and night, and I walked back (thankfully with my boyfriend) back from Hilton at 3:00am once and it was just downright creepy...

This one comes with a suggestion. So... the Exhibitors Hall... WHY SO SMALL? It was also very hot in there and stank horribly. My suggestion for next year is to get some AC going on in there, and then put the console gaming there instead. All the console gaming would fit there, and then you got it right next to where tabletop and other games go on. This leaves the garage for the Exhibitors Hall, giving ALOT more space which was unused by console gaming to sell merchandise... therefore more vendors.

The 1 hour wait for a cable at the Anime Hunters Panel. I know things get hectic for staff and they have a lot on their minds but.... seriously?

The lack of panels. I don't know... but to me and some other con goers whom I struck up a conversation with, agree that there didn't really seem to be a variety of good panels this year. A lot of the good sounding ones were run poorly too, and lots of people walked out on one because it's not what they thought it'd be and was run poorly. There was especially not any good adult panels at night, mostly Saturday night. Then... all the funnny adult panels everyone wanted to see ( proven by the lines outside the doors) were all at the SAME TIME Sunday night. I was also hoping that Tabletop would run LATE like the previous year... somewhere to go and chill after most everything is shut down... but it didn't happen. Had to just play Uno in the room.

Panel noise. I was at the Sailor Moon panel and I could not hear ANYTHING because the microphone in the panel next to use, The Chris Panel was just BLARING into our room, more so then it did for the people in back of that panel itself... I know... I came from that panel right before the Sailor Moon one.

I was quite flummoxed when I went to get my badge. I was mentally prepared for a 3 hour wait. I made sure to eat a filling meal beforehand. Brought along plenty of water. My little bro had his Nintendo DS with him. Then we walked straight up and got our badges. Done in 30 seconds. WTF?

Seriously though, that was quite nice. Way to go!

I thought the con was executed pretty flawlessly. But, I don't really attend a ton of panels so I can't comment on that aspect of it.

I could possibly be imagining this, but . . at the last Kcon at this hotel, weren't there images on the screens outside the door that told what was taking place in that room? Or at least a sheet of paper? Just wondering. It's a small thing, but a big convenience IMO especially for someone like me that doesn't really carry around the pamphlet. Plus, it could draw some impromptu attendees.

Yes, our Doctor Who Fandom panel was fanTAStic. (*next year: Contest for best 9th Doctor impersonation saying it that way!) I did miss you, Scrum, but figured you were picking up the few items of yours left that didn't sell at the Art Show! Mazel Tov~ and yes, I'm all for more adult content panels, as well.

Jaki had already heard Doctor Who Fandom needs a bigger room for next year, before I even got a chance to chat with her, so, no worries there Hm, hopefully there's video of your song from Filk it Up!

Overall, super happy with con. A few pet peevy things I'd fix:(1) The bathrooms should have hand driers or hand towels available on the counters, and/or the garbage cleaned out more often. It's disgusting and unsanitary to be unable to reach for a dry hand towel without contacting the dirty garbage beneath.

(2) The hours that each Con Suite is (a) generically open and (b) actually serving should be made known to staff in advance, with updates @ Info Booth if the times change. (Thrice I shlepped all the way down to the RL for the Veg CS, only to find no food or no people or DIY mode. The last time I stopped by, the sign still said it was open until midnight, outside the door, but it was 6pm, and the room had been emptied. However, the one out of four times I went there and was able to make myself a Boca Burger, everyone was very nice, and I am grateful vegetarian food was available at all.)

(3) Only at Rant & Rave did I *ever* hear there was actually a shuttle available for people w/disabilities. Per Koop it was "on call". Did *anyone* know about this? I was sitting at Info Desk part of the day, and someone from Info Desk was talking with me at length about how there *wasn't* a shuttle....

(4) Signs outside the doors indicating what panels are in each room in what order would be helpful.

(5) The large-print schedules @ Info got a lot of viewing (hopefully at both Info Desks, 1 per hotel). They should also be on the walls (*if* the hotel permits), once in each wing of each programming floor.

(6) The "staff internet password" didn't work in the panel rooms. If I hadn't been friends with someone letting me use his from his hotel room, we would not have been able to access the 'net for the 2 of my 3 panels that needed it.

Again, overall, I was very happy. Especially handy, speaking now as a panelist, were the half-hour windows ahead of and after each panel (Doctor Who Fandom adopted both and added them to our panel), and that mics were in the panel rooms.

I am disappointed in con security this year. I saw a lot of underage drinking but never had enough proof to go report people or I could NEVER find a staff member. Just because someone has a blue badge does not mean they are 21 and it was obvious that some of those drinking were kids. I also saw some yellow badges with booze, too! It's really just disgusting. I think con needs security to walk all through con and watch people. I NEVER saw staff this year unless I was in a line (which was only once) to get in a panel and in the gaming hall.

Also, the water we were promised kept disappearing in the Gamer Hall and a lot of people were getting dehydrated. No one thought to bring water because we were told it would have been supplied. It upset a lot of people. I know it's not con's responsibility but they didn't even put up signs when it was out and people kept walking over to get some only to get more pissed to see that it was empty. And then no staff ever came to check on it all.

I loved the Hilton staff. I was not a guest at the Hilton but they treated us very kindly and it was a very nice experience. ^^

I hated the distance between hotels. My shoes for my cosplays covered my feet in blisters on Day 0 and I couldn't cosplay more than the hour my photoshoots took before I had to change out because of my feet. This con made it very hard to cosplay and it really ruined a lot of the feel for me.

Dealer's Hall wasn't the best. There were only two stands I enjoyed and the others were nice. Two of the stands there seemed very pointless and I never saw people paying them any mind. The space was WAY too small but I did enjoy being able to look out my window and see if there was a line since the DH was literally right outside my room. I admit I got some nice stuff there but there was not enough variety. It was like I was looking at the same thing over and over and over again. :/

Artist Alley was okay but seemed like it was more cramped than the DH. Does Tabletop gaming really need that much room? And wouldn't it make more sense to have that in the same area as the Gaming Hall? There were people down there playing cards anyways.

And I like how they complained the garage was "too hot" for the DH so instead they put the games down there. Like DDR where people sweat and work their bodies. Real Smart. If the garage is "too hot" for one thing, it's too hot for the rest of things. Just don't use it and let people actually park there.

Yeah, I know I have a lot of Cons here but it's how I feel. Overall this is the worst con I have ever been to. I did not enjoy myself and I think a lot of things could have been improved upon. I'm not going to rant more because I don't see the point but these are just the big things for me. You each have your opinion and these are mine.

This con made it very hard to cosplay and it really ruined a lot of the feel for me

Kumoricon isn't responsible for the shoes you buy! The distance was fine for me, but maybe its because I try and find the most sensible shoes for the cosplay, although I also have several blisters as well. I reccomend getting mole-skin blister things and putting them on before you start wearing you shoes. Another option is bringing flip flops/flats and changing into your shoes real quick for the photoshoot.

I had an amazing time at Kumoricon. I saw a lot of amazing people and had a really good time. It was my first time cosplaying since 2005, and it was a blast!

Hotel & StaffPROS: We got a room in the Hilton, on the 7th floor. The room was totally big enough for the 5 of us sleeping, and about 10 of us partying. Beds were super comfortable!

Emanuel, the guy who was holding the doors and let me into the Park 'N Go after a frantic "Ohmygod they closed it! D:!" moment, was super nice. He always stopped to say something nice or just be a total gentlemen! I got my picture with him as well on a camera he had.

I think, its Richard, maybe? The Manager of the hotel I think. He was also really helpful with my bad luck that I hauled everything up to the 7th floor... only to learn that all of them had been whiped from the magnet in my wallet! lol.

CONS:A very big con is that I had my card charged $557 for the room. I needed to put my stuff away and then run to Beaverton until 1 am for cosplay emergencies, so I put down my debit card first and it was to be changed later to a roommates card. They were ble to refund me $538, but its frustrating to hear that sort of thing happens. From my understanding they were going to take a deposit (I had the number $150 in my head for some reason) and not the whole thing...

I like the layout of the hotel a lot, I do wish people would be a bit more patient with elevators. I'm not afraid to be upfront, and had to tell a few people who tried to push themselves into the elevator without letting us leave first to wait. Its just common decency! A lot of us have fragile props.

The only "hotel" staff that was rude at all was one employee from the coffee shop inside it. TOTAL attitude when trying to make small talk.

Over all: Aside from the money issue, I really liked this hotel. I am absolutely staying here again!

Convention Programming/Dealers HallPROS: Um, I really liked the Guidebook ap! I used it quite a bit to help look at maps.

CONS: There wasn't really a whole lot of events I wanted to go to. I went to one panel for about ten minutes, but it was sort of non-descript and wasn't what I expected so I wanted to move on. I went to the raves Sat/Sun night for a while. But I didn't really feel I got my badge's worth.

Dealers hall was TINY. And SO crowded. Just because the fire code says 200, maybe lets do 150 for a more leisurely buying experience. I bought a bag of chip things, and a miniature food silicone do it yourself thing for my little sister. I thought about going back on Monday but didn't feel the wait and crowds were worth the meager pickings. I wouldn't care if we had dealers who had the same things- Its not a monopoly! It allows us to shop around and possibly find that item for cheaper...

There was a ton of staff this year! Most of them... just kind of seemed to be hanging out. I asked several where I get peacebonded at 1 am and no one could tell me. I got told several different locations and I hate playing tag with staff.

I wish that we could have food vendors. We went to the Thai food place twice and had very lack luster service, and to a Muchas Gracias like 15 blocks away for dinner one night. Is there any way for Kumoricon to tell all the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING food truck vendors in PDX/Vancouver to come to Vancouver for the weekend? That would be so much nicer!

I've been going since 2005, and this was my best con yet. Thank you so much to everyone!

LocationCan't lie, I'm kinda sad that things are in Vancouver now. It makes it a lot harder for me to get to it. D :But luckily that problem was solved thanks to a nice friends letting me and my cousin stay over the whole con. As for the distance between the hotels, I personally didn't mind it much. But, I also wasn't staying in the hotels, so I never had a real reason to travel between them unless it was to follow some friends around. I absolutely LOVED the park though! I hung around there a large amount of the time. =D There were always some silly games going on between con-goers, and it was just really enjoyable. If you were hot enough, you even had that nice waterfall/fountain thing to put your feet in.

Panels/SeatingI didn't go to a ton of em', but they were really fun! The 18+ anime dating game was hilarious. I do kinda have a complaint about the cosplay chess though - I waited in line for a horribly long time, and was near the front, because I seriously wanted a good seat. But, instead of letting the first people sit in front seats, they had us go to the back. =/ This was extremely disappointing. I felt it should have been the opposite. In the end me and my cousin moved to different empty seats near the front. There was no way we were gonna stay in the back. =3= I understand they had large screens to watch the action, but wheres the fun in that? I might as well have just found a video of the game later. ;-;

Con-goersI was kinda scanning through the other posts, and I guess some people didn't have the best experience with other con-goers. I personally had a great time with them. =) Sure, people tended to be in their own separate groups, but that sort of happens when you know people...you stick together. Everyone I talked to was super nice (I wasn't a picture taker, just enjoyed meeting and talking to people). They would also be happy to join in games or dance around when someone played music. Overall, everyone seemed pretty nice. I agree that there weren't a ton of amazing costumes, but there were enough to keep me entertained. =)

I had an amazing time at the con. I'm not being negative by only posting the cons, rather posting the pro's would take way too much time.

-Since it was brought up, I have never run into such rude people at a convention EVER. There was no DGM shoot. So I walekd up to a few people and asked " Would you like to start a D gray man photo shoot' And they just stared at me like I was speaking a different language. I know they understood because i thought mayeb they didn't get it because my costuem was spoiler-riffic.. So I told them I was cosplaying as Kanda. They said " Yeah" and just continued to stare at me like how dare I speak to them.Really? What the HELL are you doing cosplaying if you hate the human race so much? Do us all a favor and stay home next year. No one wants to deal with you.

-Peacebonding. It has gottne increasingly irritating at all cons this year. At reg I was on my way to get cash at the ATM when the peace bonding staff yelld at me to peace bond my weapon. Can I at least REG first? I am not a damned cirminal - like they seem to believe anyone with a prop is- I would have come to the table once I was finished registeringAs my sword was all white the long-ass orange tag was unsightly, so I cut it shorter, though I didn't cut it off. I went back into reg lwith my friend and AGAIN I was harassed to get it peace bonded. I SHOWED them it already was and they said it was two short so they left a good six inches sticking off of my sward as well as the previous tag on it. Because it 'had to be seen from far away" It is a contract, that states if I HAVE this piece of binding I am allowed to keep it. I have it peace-bonded and I have signed the contract. My part of the contract is fulfilled. And what about that person who was beating-with bare hands, not props-at the rave? So we get increasingly strict on props but INSIST on having raves?I'm not trying to cause trouble, I love KC and I am a reasonable and responsible person. I don't think ti's too much as that I not be harassed constantly when I have nothing wrong at a place where I go to relax and have fun.

PROSThe location was great. There is no better place then to have a convention across the street from a park. The staff was overall friendly. A major improvement from the last 2 years. The main Hotel had good lighting too. Better for in door pictures and general feel of the place.Most everyone seemed to be chillaxed and friendly this con.

CONSThe Red Lion was small and hard to navigate through. I got trapped in Artist Alley and Venders hall a couple times. There was also a very limited amount of venders. But I guess that would make sense with such limited space there was. Also although most people people were friendly my friends and I still ran into a few rude jerk faces every now and then, very limited though, but you cant control that.

Only issue I had with the hotel wasn't really anything they had to do with,

We had a room on the 3rd floor and in our room we could have danced to the beat of the music we heard, 2nd dance was louder then the 1st. Since I was staff and rooming in the staff section it made me feel like I couldn't complain about it, the way I would if I was staying at a hotel and heard music that loud in my room.

CON STAFFCons: Some of the staff were very irritable and short with attendees, constantly reiterating themselves as if we were too daft to understand, especially during lines. The "badge above the waist" rule was impossible to follow in some of my costumes, and even though it was only slightly lower on my hips and I made sure to grab it for their convenience when it needed to be shown they still harped at me over it.Pros: On the last day of the con when I thought I had lost my sister's camera and was frantic, a very nice staff guy at the Red Lion took time out of his busy day to help us as best as he could. If you're reading this, you're awesome, and I'll try not to lose my car!

LOCATIONCons: Very little food diversity in the surrounding area. Not sure how this could be remedied for next year but subsisting primarily off of Subway and pastries sucked.Pros: Having a park across the street is just excellent, so much better than the Hilton's sardine can situation. Also the area feels very safe.

PANELSCons: Such weird scheduling. I felt really bad for my minor friends because they had nothing to do at all since the few good panels we wanted to go to were 18+, there was nothing for the minors to do at night. In general most of the good stuff was on day two, and nothing at all to do on day one. Also my adult handstamp rubbed off so I had to show my ID anyways. Pros: Both of the Whose Line panels were really, really funny.

COSPLAY CONTESTCons: I thought that dance skits were supposed to have their own category, what the hell.Pros: The EVA, Dragonball, and Itemshop skits were really good, and most all of the costumes were excellent. (GO HALEY WOOWOO)

IN GENERALDespite any minor issues I had, what makes the con worth attending is the people! I've been going to KCon for four years and I'll continue to do so for as long as I'm in this hobby. I'd really like to thank everyone that works so hard to make them happen and all the people that attend and make the fun- thank you and see you next year ~

Con StaffCons: No complaints. There was one person who was kinda rude about one of my panels running a little late (he came in only a few minutes past when it was supposed to be over, and my panel had gotten a late start because the panel before it had run into my time), because he wanted to go to bed, which I understand, and sometimes people can be rude when they're tired. So it wasn't really an issue, although my audience was having fun and he kind of cut into that.

ScrumYummy and all who attended this panel:This was me. I humbly, deeply and truly apologize for my conduct. there was no excuse for my rudeness and if I continue to work as staff, I will work to improve my performance. I'm so sorry and hope that I will be able to apologize to you in person sometime. I am typically polite and even keeled and unfortunately my moment of inappropriateness had an impact on a panel and a number of attendees. Again, I am truly sorry.

COSPLAY CONTESTCons: I thought that dance skits were supposed to have their own category, what the hell.Pros: The EVA, Dragonball, and Itemshop skits were really good, and most all of the costumes were excellent. (GO HALEY WOOWOO)

The skits were labeled as "Dance Skit" or "regular skit", as the entrants had entered on their sheets ... we judged dance skits based upon choreography, matching the music, and other dance-related criteria. We judged regular skits on content, presentation, and other acting related things. (The judges ARE professional actors, after all.)

I told the judges, the 3 Guests of honor (Dave, Todd, & Chris) about the options of what prizes could be offered (including, Dance vs regular skits, awards for each category of novice, journeyman and master or "make up whatever prize you think is appropriate..." ). The prizes given are what THEY told me to award. I'm not going to tell the Guests of Honor that they're wrong or that they should have offered different prizes. There were ONLY 19 skits, so with that small number of skits, granting 6 awards is a good number...and they chose what they felt was the best.

=====I had an EXCELLENT convention.

I was both amused and dismayed to hear that "CHAIR" was the "Audience Choice" for best skit. Next year, the chair gets married (I'll bring a top hat and a veil for the Chairs).

The only issue I heard about was from a disabled person who was upset that she couldn't visit the dealer's room, art show or other things happening at the Red Lion because it was so far to walk to. I saw in posts above that apparently a shuttle was available, but the existence of said shuttle was NOT publicized (nor even mentioned to staff - if I'd heard about it, I would have told her about it so that she could have used it)

The only issue I heard about was from a disabled person who was upset that she couldn't visit the dealer's room, art show or other things happening at the Red Lion because it was so far to walk to. I saw in posts above that apparently a shuttle was available, but the existence of said shuttle was NOT publicized (nor even mentioned to staff - if I'd heard about it, I would have told her about it so that she could have used it)

The hilton also provided wheel chair to guests upon request. They let me use one even after we had checked out, as long as it was needed.I don't know if they were staying there but I would be willing to bet *as long as they had a debit or credit card recorded* that they would check them out to non guests as well. Something to look into for next year

And I like how they complained the garage was "too hot" for the DH so instead they put the games down there. Like DDR where people sweat and work their bodies. Real Smart. If the garage is "too hot" for one thing, it's too hot for the rest of things. Just don't use it and let people actually park there.

If we put Dealers in there, the pipe & drape to section the booths, and the shelving and other stuff they set up goes up at least 8 feet and blocks the vast majority of the airflow. Gaming TVs don't go up nearly as high and big air mover fans are actually effective. I am sorry if it did get warm there from time to time, but it would have been much, much hotter if it had been dealer's hall. How we set it up actually affects how hot it is by a good deal. Air movers versus blockers, basically.

HOTELS:PRO: The staff at both hotels were SUPER nice, even maintenance asked me if I was having fun. Red Lion even let me check in early. The red lion was also really quiet (i had heard horror stories about ppl being loud at the con hotels, so was hesitant to stay there).

CON: the only bad thing was the lack of restaurants available. we ended up just driving to safeway to buy frozen food to eat.

DEALERS HALL:PRO: the staff was really good at keeping control of how many ppl were in there, and were really nice about it.

CON: the space that the hall was in WAS rather small. Maybe next year it should be moved to the parking garage of the hilton (w/ better ventilation!!)

CONVENTION ITSELF AND PANELS:PRO: the staff for the con was really great at keeping things under control. all the panels i went to were on time, and ran fairly smoothly.

CON: sometimes the staff was a little.... terse with us. Also i went to more than a few panels who needed larger rooms, the host club panel being #1 on that list.

I noticed that we didn't seem to have as many ppl at this years con as we did at last years, and i think the location was the main reason why. i didn't have a problem with the distance between the two hotels or anything, just with the heat (which no one can control). hopefully next yr more ppl turn out.

And I like how they complained the garage was "too hot" for the DH so instead they put the games down there. Like DDR where people sweat and work their bodies. Real Smart. If the garage is "too hot" for one thing, it's too hot for the rest of things. Just don't use it and let people actually park there.

If we put Dealers in there, the pipe & drape to section the booths, and the shelving and other stuff they set up goes up at least 8 feet and blocks the vast majority of the airflow. Gaming TVs don't go up nearly as high and big air mover fans are actually effective. I am sorry if it did get warm there from time to time, but it would have been much, much hotter if it had been dealer's hall. How we set it up actually affects how hot it is by a good deal. Air movers versus blockers, basically.

Maybe put the artist alley down there, then? The artist booths don't block air flow, and the AA needs more space.

The dealer's room needs more space too, but since the garage isn't an option I'm not really sure how you could deal with that. Maybe find a third venue/space nearby for something? (By "something" I mean either the AA, dealer's room, or gaming). I understand that means more money, but those areas of the convention were so crowded. People are going to stop coming if it means putting up with that every year.

Con StaffCons: No complaints. There was one person who was kinda rude about one of my panels running a little late (he came in only a few minutes past when it was supposed to be over, and my panel had gotten a late start because the panel before it had run into my time), because he wanted to go to bed, which I understand, and sometimes people can be rude when they're tired. So it wasn't really an issue, although my audience was having fun and he kind of cut into that.

ScrumYummy and all who attended this panel:This was me. I humbly, deeply and truly apologize for my conduct. there was no excuse for my rudeness and if I continue to work as staff, I will work to improve my performance. I'm so sorry and hope that I will be able to apologize to you in person sometime. I am typically polite and even keeled and unfortunately my moment of inappropriateness had an impact on a panel and a number of attendees. Again, I am truly sorry.

No worries!! Thank you so much for the apology; I remember you from last year (2010) and how nice you were so I assumed that you were tired/had a long con day, so it didn't change my opinion of you personally. I was mentioning it so that maybe other staffers would see it and go "oh okay, I'll make a mental note never to do that."

DEALERS HALL:CON: the space that the hall was in WAS rather small. Maybe next year it should be moved to the parking garage of the hilton (w/ better ventilation!!)

I noticed that we didn't seem to have as many ppl at this years con as we did at last years, and i think the location was the main reason why. i didn't have a problem with the distance between the two hotels or anything, just with the heat (which no one can control). hopefully next yr more ppl turn out.

I think the dealer's hall in the garage would be a great idea if there was a way to fix the ventilation problem. And then they could do something like move the artist alley to the room where the dealer's hall was (*crosses fingers*).

As for the attendance, I think it seemed like attendance was lower because everything was more spread out (a good thing), but also, I think we had higher attendance in downtown portland because it was more accessible for a lot of people, especially those who only wanted to go for one or two of the days (and those of use who lived nearby, could take public transit in, or walk).

And I like how they complained the garage was "too hot" for the DH so instead they put the games down there. Like DDR where people sweat and work their bodies. Real Smart. If the garage is "too hot" for one thing, it's too hot for the rest of things. Just don't use it and let people actually park there.

If we put Dealers in there, the pipe & drape to section the booths, and the shelving and other stuff they set up goes up at least 8 feet and blocks the vast majority of the airflow. Gaming TVs don't go up nearly as high and big air mover fans are actually effective. I am sorry if it did get warm there from time to time, but it would have been much, much hotter if it had been dealer's hall. How we set it up actually affects how hot it is by a good deal. Air movers versus blockers, basically.

Maybe put the artist alley down there, then? The artist booths don't block air flow, and the AA needs more space.

The dealer's room needs more space too, but since the garage isn't an option I'm not really sure how you could deal with that. Maybe find a third venue/space nearby for something? (By "something" I mean either the AA, dealer's room, or gaming). I understand that means more money, but those areas of the convention were so crowded. People are going to stop coming if it means putting up with that every year.

Artist Alley being there might work, but it likely have to be part of a much larger overhaul of placement of areas. Hopefully, the next Board keeps it in mind

I understand your crowding concern, but overall the con a bit less crowded than it was the past two years. Actually, even three years ago had more crowding issues. If the next Board can find solutions to make it even less crowded, that would be awesome.

The biggest one for me. I've been going to Kumoricon since 2004... and I swear the Karaoke song collection has not changed since 2005 or 2006.... -____- What's the point of a suggestion thread for new music if it just gets ignored?? And it's not like the artist I've been suggesting for the past 4 years is exactly hard to get ahold of her CD's... she's like Japans Britney Spears.

There were also like NO CHAIRS in the Karaoke room. There were a lot more tables than chairs.

what about more fan placement going on in there to keep the air flow going? Along the walls might not be to bad of an idea. I think most attendees will agree they'll take the heat over the over crowding and significantly less amount of vendors. This coming from some one whose now experienced the hall in both the locations possible for 07. I know it would be worse for the vendors since they'll be in there far more often than I, a shopper, but I feel that most of the consumers are going to think the same, wanting more options as opposed to a hotter area.

It's a puzzle for sure, but I feel there has to be an answer that reach's a happy medium for the consumers and the vendors.

oh and as far as the attendance issue goes, as far as my knowledge spreds a few didn't want to go because of it being in Washington. But I've run into more and more people who stopped going in 2010 because they hated the pdx Hilton. I was very hesitant to come this year, I basically had K con on probation because I was so unhappy with 09. I know I'm not the only one who held this position. The con couldnt help being there two years in a row, it was part of the contract. That's what convinced me to give this thing another shot, since I trusted the staff who now had an open window to improve above and beyond, would take that chance. They did for the most part and I've come away from 2011 K con with a renewed opinion of the con and am happy to call myself an attendee again. I think that the attendance will in fact go up again now that were out of pdx Hilton, and things have started to turn up from where they were the last two years. If you look at the stats on the site the con has been going up in attendance from it's starting year to 09, then in 10 it took a dip and for the first year instead of having more people than the year before, we had less, and that was before migrating to Washington.

what about more fan placement going on in there to keep the air flow going? Along the walls might not be to bad of an idea. I think most attendees will agree they'll take the heat over the over crowding and significantly less amount of vendors. This coming from some one whose now experienced the hall in both the locations possible for 07. I know it would be worse for the vendors since they'll be in there far more often than I, a shopper, but I feel that most of the consumers are going to think the same, wanting more options as opposed to a hotter area.

It's a puzzle for sure, but I feel there has to be an answer that reach's a happy medium for the consumers and the vendors.

oh and as far as the attendance issue goes, as far as my knowledge spreds a few didn't want to go because of it being in Washington. But I've run into more and more people who stopped going in 2010 because they hated the pdx Hilton. I was very hesitant to come this year, I basically had K con on probation because I was so unhappy with 09. I know I'm not the only one who held this position. The con couldnt help being there two years in a row, it was part of the contract. That's what convinced me to give this thing another shot, since I trusted the staff who now had an open window to improve above and beyond, would take that chance. They did for the most part and I've come away from 2011 K con with a renewed opinion of the con and am happy to call myself an attendee again. I think that the attendance will in fact go up again now that were out of pdx Hilton, and things have started to turn up from where they were the last two years. If you look at the stats on the site the con has been going up in attendance from it's starting year to 09, then in 10 it took a dip and for the first year instead of having more people than the year before, we had less, and that was before migrating to Washington.

I agree with all of this. And it's sad to think it's because of that hotel, but I noticed that too, that that was the year our attendance went down for the first time ever.

You guys also have to keep in mind one thing: If we move something, like Dealer's hall, something else would have to be moved (we call this the executive headache dilemma). Also, every single room has a capacity limit for fire code reasons. If you really wanted Dealer's hall in the garage, then you'd have to figure out where to put four things: Autographs, Gaming, Convention storage, and Registration.

I posit that reg would be difficult to move; if we theoretically moved it to where Dealer's hall is, we're going to inconvenience a lot of people, seeing as the majority of them are staying at the Hilton (And you could also argue this about dealer's hall). We also would not benefit from the awnings that shaded our huge line of people waiting for Reg. It was successful where it was this year because we had it in an area everyone could get to.

The Gaming problem is a little easier to fix: Spread out the heat emitting stations a bit.

I'm not trying to shoot your ideas down, I'm just letting you guys know that your idea for solutions to your problems are great, but then create a new challenge foe the staff here to handle.

I sincerely hope that Kumoricon has finally, after years of hotel hopping, found her permanent home. I only dropped briefly into the Red Lion on Sunday, but the Hilton has a wonderful layout, nice and open and easy to navigate, with convenient stair access to the convention floors/basement and no need to squirrel anything away at the top of the building like last year. I never got lost, I never felt like I had to meander forever to find a panel, the crowd flow was excellent, and the staff were angels - so friendly and upbeat and supportive of the general otaku invasion. Our waiter at Gray's even said he wished he could be out there attending, and was enthusing about the costumes he'd recognized already. And the park was just a godsend, a spacious general meeting place where people could mingle and get some fresh air and take great pictures without ending up scattered all over the city. Please, please keep the con here for as long as it will fit. <3

Suggestions:

The stair access was so good that I wish there were more signs pointing out those stairs to other people. (My boyfriend and I almost never had to use the elevator while in con space.) Also, I'm bewildered at the number of people complaining about a lack of food. There are dozens of tasty, inexpensive restaurants very close to the Hilton! Over the course of the weekend, I ate at a Hawaiian tiki-bar, at Subway, at a gelato shop with delicious grilled panini sandwiches, at the farmer's market, and at Gray's at the Park, and walked by several other options...and every place had menu items for seven/eight dollars or less. Maybe next year, a quick map of the food options in the surrounding environs would be nice, for those without a smartphone that looks up restaurants for them?

Dealer's Hall

Successes:

I honestly don't buy much at dealer's halls, so although I noticed the small size, it didn't bother me much. The selection at the booths was reasonably diverse, and the dealers were all polite, with nobody shouting and waving wares at the customers or making inappropriate comments.

Suggestions:

I do agree with those who said that the crowd-flow could stand to be rearranged. It bottled up somewhat near the Funimation booth, and I couldn't browse comfortably with people pushing past me.

Con staff

Successes:

Very, very nice staff this year. I bumped into a few people who were a little sharp with attendees, but no worse than you would expect after a few stressful days of herding people around, and they were never outright nasty/vindictive. I encountered nobody on a power-trip and nobody being straight-up rude; and there were a lot of staffers who went out of their way to be helpful, even when I was running around like a headless chicken trying to get to performances.

Suggestions:

A few volunteers seemed underinformed and unable to answer questions, especially about where everything was, and were only able to pass me off down a chain of possibly-more-informed staffers. Orienting all the volunteers is probably a logistical nightmare, but maybe a simple paper handout or something might help next year? Not sure. Other than that, keep up the good work!

Panels

Successes:

There were a lot of really fun panels this year! I liked the way splitting up the Creation Station into various rooms allowed for more appropriate room sizing for different events. The various roasts and improvisational comedy panels were particularly fun, and I ducked in and out of several how-to panels that seemed very helpful. I was also happy that everything I needed for my own panels was provided in a very timely manner, and laid out in an easy-to-use fashion. Thank you, Programming!

Suggestions:

I agree with the general consensus that the panel content was a little thin in the mornings, and the evenings were packed with too many competing panels of awesome. I know firsthand that there was a lot of last-minute juggling, but if it's at all possible, maybe next year a few of the minor-appropriate perennial favorites could be moved a little earlier in the day? Also agreeing with the general request for schedules outside the individual panel rooms, either on the screens or taped to the walls.

Badge pickup

Holy moly, that was the shortest badge wait ever. And that includes the time I spent waiting for my badge to be printed, since it hadn't been printed in the first place due to some kind of mixup. Please, keep doing what you're doing with the badge pickup system. Great work there.

The trick to having a manageable basement at the Hilton is that wherever you put the fans during the day, at night they ALL need to be moved to the entrance to pump as much fresh air in as possible. In 2007, this was done the night before the convention and it made a wonderful impact. when the hall opened that morning it was much nicer than it had been the previous day. If the fans had been moved the following two nights it would have improved conditions wonderfully.

As the former cartographer I am eager to see what events are rearranged for next year. I thought the room changes between 2009 and 2010 were good choices so I think we'll see similar decisions between 2011 and 2012.

You guys also have to keep in mind one thing: If we move something, like Dealer's hall, something else would have to be moved (we call this the executive headache dilemma). Also, every single room has a capacity limit for fire code reasons. If you really wanted Dealer's hall in the garage, then you'd have to figure out where to put four things: Autographs, Gaming, Convention storage, and Registration.

I posit that reg would be difficult to move; if we theoretically moved it to where Dealer's hall is, we're going to inconvenience a lot of people, seeing as the majority of them are staying at the Hilton (And you could also argue this about dealer's hall). We also would not benefit from the awnings that shaded our huge line of people waiting for Reg. It was successful where it was this year because we had it in an area everyone could get to.

The Gaming problem is a little easier to fix: Spread out the heat emitting stations a bit.

I'm not trying to shoot your ideas down, I'm just letting you guys know that your idea for solutions to your problems are great, but then create a new challenge foe the staff here to handle.

Surely there is a tetris master here who can work all of this out.

Jokes aside, would everything else have to be removed from the garage in order to put the dealer's room or artist alley there? Surely not. I only saw it on Friday night, but it seemed like there was a ton of un-used space. You could take something out of there, let's say gaming, and put dealers in there, and then put gaming where the dealer's hall was. Or (and this would get me to shut up about artist alley) you could put tabletop gaming down there (the garage), and let AA have the entire room and not just squish it in the corner. That doesn't do anything for the dealer's hall, though.

How many people generally stand in line for autographs? I've never seen it, so I don't know how much space it needs.

Suggestions:Also, I'm bewildered at the number of people complaining about a lack of food.

There is a lack of vegan options. It wasn't as much of a problem for me, I brought a cooler full of burrito-makings and spent the weekend living off my own food, but for anyone who didn't anticipate it, it might have caused problems for them.

(Ps--loved your panel!! Singing filk is so much fun. I didn't make it to the "how-to" class, but I came to the main panel and played the ukelele and you guys were so great and patient with me being a beginner. Thanks again!)

You guys also have to keep in mind one thing: If we move something, like Dealer's hall, something else would have to be moved (we call this the executive headache dilemma). Also, every single room has a capacity limit for fire code reasons. If you really wanted Dealer's hall in the garage, then you'd have to figure out where to put four things: Autographs, Gaming, Convention storage, and Registration.

I posit that reg would be difficult to move; if we theoretically moved it to where Dealer's hall is, we're going to inconvenience a lot of people, seeing as the majority of them are staying at the Hilton (And you could also argue this about dealer's hall). We also would not benefit from the awnings that shaded our huge line of people waiting for Reg. It was successful where it was this year because we had it in an area everyone could get to.

The Gaming problem is a little easier to fix: Spread out the heat emitting stations a bit.

I'm not trying to shoot your ideas down, I'm just letting you guys know that your idea for solutions to your problems are great, but then create a new challenge foe the staff here to handle.

Surely there is a tetris master here who can work all of this out.

Jokes aside, would everything else have to be removed from the garage in order to put the dealer's room or artist alley there? Surely not. I only saw it on Friday night, but it seemed like there was a ton of un-used space. You could take something out of there, let's say gaming, and put dealers in there, and then put gaming where the dealer's hall was. Or (and this would get me to shut up about artist alley) you could put tabletop gaming down there (the garage), and let AA have the entire room and not just squish it in the corner. That doesn't do anything for the dealer's hall, though.

*Tetris mode activate!*

Autographs isn't like pre-reg where you have the longest line in the world to get in. They can probably go into a regular panel room.If not, as long as you don't have it at the same time as Pre-reg, can't they go into the same place and use the same structure?

Gaming can go where AA was this year so it and Tabletop are in the same place. You can also reduce the tables for tabletop (if you want) because I never saw all of those tables being used when I tried to go to AA.

Why do we need "pipe & drape to section the booths?" Just put up a smaller barrier. They don't need to not see each other. It's not like they are going to be stealing merchandise or anything. Put a little space between them or a fence piece if you are that worried. As for the 8' high structures, they aren't walls. From what I have seen they have holes for ventilation and if they don't, there is very few like that. You can also put ones like that against a wall so it doesn't obstruct the air anyways.Have people take pictures of their booth set ups before hand so you can situate things in a manner that is best for the flow of air.You can set up a design in a way that everyone is happy and no one is dieing of heat. Maybe even have a small stand (kumo or regular dealer) that sells those little necklace fans or hand fans and make a bit of profit from the little bit of heat?AA can go right across from the DH in the garage which wouldn't be bad.

They don't need the whole garage so you could still have Pre-reg in there. If you opt to use the whole garage that is amazing! Then you could have put pre-reg in the Red Lion area and still used the door ways like you did for DH. This area can also be used for storage (And as said above, autographs).

When it comes to where people are staying, just switch it around...?Red Lion has better amenities for it's rooms anyways. Granted, the rooms are smaller but they have a coffee pot, microwave, and mini fridge in every room. It made food a lot easier for me and my roomies since we were on a ramen diet so we could buy swag. We couldn't have done that in the Hilton since they didn't offer the same things. Or give everyone an option instead of forcing them to be in one hotel. Say, "This is where this is...and this is where this is...and here are the hotels you can choose from. It's your choice if you want to be closer or not." Then they sign their own fate and it's always nice to have an option.

But here are my suggestions.I loved last year's Kumo and I really wished it could have been the same this year. Kumo has a special place in my heart because it's where I met my bf and we are going on one year together this month. It will always be special because of that and I hate that I had such a terrible year. 98% of my friends hated it, too. I get that some people enjoyed it and that's great. But you also have to take into account not everyone can be happy. A little bit of a mix and trial and error is nice. You can always go back to how you used to be but you'll never find out if it can be better without trying something out and possibly failing.

If we want con to be supermegafoxyawesomehot maybe any profit (or a percent of it) gained each year should go in a savings fund to start saving up for a convention center just for us? I get that it will take forever and a decade but if we don't ever start, we won't ever get there. Our determination could maybe even be brought to the attention of the people of Portland and maybe they will catch on how much we want/need a good space. I know we've probably talked to them before but there are ways to make them see what we see and be as determined as we are.

I would love to be more of a part of Kumoricon but until the day before Day 0, I lived in Washington. I literally moved to Oregon the day before Day 0. I live 2 hours away from Portland but it's better than the 4 I did before. If I could be more involved and try and help I would appreciate it because there are ways to change things if I get a bit to explain (if this hasn't been enough already).

You guys also have to keep in mind one thing: If we move something, like Dealer's hall, something else would have to be moved (we call this the executive headache dilemma). Also, every single room has a capacity limit for fire code reasons. If you really wanted Dealer's hall in the garage, then you'd have to figure out where to put four things: Autographs, Gaming, Convention storage, and Registration.

I posit that reg would be difficult to move; if we theoretically moved it to where Dealer's hall is, we're going to inconvenience a lot of people, seeing as the majority of them are staying at the Hilton (And you could also argue this about dealer's hall). We also would not benefit from the awnings that shaded our huge line of people waiting for Reg. It was successful where it was this year because we had it in an area everyone could get to.

The Gaming problem is a little easier to fix: Spread out the heat emitting stations a bit.

I'm not trying to shoot your ideas down, I'm just letting you guys know that your idea for solutions to your problems are great, but then create a new challenge foe the staff here to handle.

Surely there is a tetris master here who can work all of this out.

Jokes aside, would everything else have to be removed from the garage in order to put the dealer's room or artist alley there? Surely not. I only saw it on Friday night, but it seemed like there was a ton of un-used space. You could take something out of there, let's say gaming, and put dealers in there, and then put gaming where the dealer's hall was. Or (and this would get me to shut up about artist alley) you could put tabletop gaming down there (the garage), and let AA have the entire room and not just squish it in the corner. That doesn't do anything for the dealer's hall, though.

How many people generally stand in line for autographs? I've never seen it, so I don't know how much space it needs.

Dealer's Hall also has typically has the second biggest line of the con. With reg running well, it was the biggest line problem of the con. It is the only room where we need to monitor occupancy all weekend long, and it's not just due to it being small. We have this even when Dealer's is in a larger space like at Doubletree. Having Dealers share space with anything else would be a lot more staffing intensive. Also, there are various Fire Code and security that would need to be figured out. It's not impossible to put Dealer's Hall there, but a lot of things need to be balanced like occupancy, cost and whether or not Kcon is confident that we have enough staff to handle more Yoji shifts.

[edits to add] @Gryffinclaw Princess - The pipe and drape isn't the only height issue. Some vendors also use the full height of the booth space for shelves, displays, advertising, storage, etc. They often have custom displays meant for a standard booth size. So, if we made our booths smaller by making them shorter that would be very hard on them. For certain vendors and companies we have a relationship with, that could be pretty problematic.

Registration line could be moved to where it was in 07 though that would be a general hassle as it means people waiting outside. What about moving reg to the second floor? I'm not sure how well that would work out but I'm nearly imagining what it was like in 09 to pick up badges. Though if things like badge pick up continue at such a fast pace I'm wondering how big of an issue the line will be. I wouldnt write it off of course but just something I'm thinking of.

and the main events hall generally needs to be used as a whole, at least from what I saw. And so much goes on in there already I dont think the staff wants the hassle of having to re arrange it constantly.

And gryfinclaw, often those grated walls are covered in merchandize not to mention there are bookshelf's and large stacks of figurines and plushies, dvd's, and the like.

And finally, I'm going to generally agree with Tom. I've seen staff in here already so I have confidence in them to fix the glaring problem of this year some how, or at least improve it. We managed to lay everything out rather nicely in 07, and now though yes there are more people, we have more rooms to use since we've added on the red lion! We have a good staff, I'm sure they'll manage to pull it off.

Pro : We had a nice park, nice A/C'd venues. Really enjoyed it. And parking~ Dealer's Room wasn't in the parking garage like last time we were here; the use of A/C and better lighting really helped; was pleased to see it was near the Artist's Alley. Staff was very nice when it was there.

Con : It was unclear if we could use the fire exit stairs or not instead of waiting on the elevators to get from Floor 1 or 2 to Floor 3 in the Hilton. I wish the Dealer's Room had more A/C in several cases I was in there; Also wish it was not as crowded in the back corner where the exit was so it'd be easier for people to leave. Kinokuniya booth was a very tight squeeze to get in and out of like always, but it seemed more so this year because it was right on the path to the exit line directly. We needed more staff to appear during the Rave/Roast of Zach/Slightly Anime 18+ because that corner was very packed very quickly and for a while we only had two attendees controlling the Roast line until staff realized the corner was getting more chaotic by the minute.

It'd be shame on the audience, really. 742 votes for the chair. They made a plaque for it and everything. I don't blame them (I didn't vote for the chair) because there were so many dance skits (back to back), and those are always too long and loose the crowd's attention. We go to the cosplay contest to be entertained and laugh, and see really awsome costumes done. Honestly the walk-ons blew the skits out of the water, minus maybe 3 skits. I only remember 2, and the third I remember I thought was mediocre from their usual skits from years past.

Speaking of that. Would it be rude for KumoriCon to make a special contest specifically for the dance skits? So people who want to see them can go to them, while people who don't won't have to watch them. I'd suggest banning them all together, but I've seen some creative dance skits before. Most of the issues comes from if people don't move about to keep the audience entertained (thinking of a skit at AX07 that was hilarious with Light and Ryuk), or that they go on for too long with little movement to keep us entertained (I'm thinking of 2 skits from this year's contest).

Hotel/Location:Pros: The location was absolutely AMAZING! The hotel space was perfect, the hotel staff treated us kindly, and it seemed I could get to things easier and faster this year. I was glad to hear at Closing Ceremonies that Kumoricon 2012 will be held at the same location.

Cons: Not much. Only the fact I got pretty tired of walking from the Hilton to the Red Lion. I only went to the Red Lion a total of... three times. Basically, I mainly stayed at the Hilton.

Staff:Pros: I must say, you rock staff! Everything was so well organized and not so chaotic, and I wanna say thanks a lot for your hard work on making this convention happen! <3

Cons: None that I can think of.

Attendees/Treatment towards one another:Pros: It seemed half of the attendees there were pretty awesome and friendly! I met a lot of new people, made new friends, and had a great time socializing and mingling. ^_^

Cons: The other half, however, were not very nice... It seemed this year that "sophistication" and "perfection" were trending (to what I've experienced). I was cosplaying Axel on Day 1 and I had my girlfriend (who cosplayed Roxas) with me. Now, she didn't have a Roxas cosplay but we styled her short, blonde hair to be Roxas. Most people recognized her, but there were some who just I guess "bullied" for not having the perfect costume. I understand constructive criticism, but basically just saying someones costume is horrible because you don't have all the details isn't cool. I thought the convention was about having fun being in character no matter what your costume looks like, not a competition. This "criticizing" happened to both my girlfriend and I, and I hope it doesn't return next year.

Sorry for the rant, but I don't tolerate bullying in any way, shape, or form.

Dealers Hall:Pros: Good selection of merchandise. Rather pleased with my purchases.

Cons: TOO SMALL! Space wise, I couldn't handle being in that room. I have extreme claustrophobia and when I got in there, it seemed I couldn't get out. Luckily, I found my friend and she helped me through the crowd before I passed out.

Registration:Pros: That was the quickest registration EVER! I thought I would in line for hours and hours on Day 0 (so I got in line early..teehee.) and when the line moved, the line moved pretty dang fast! The overall set up was nicely organized and I hope you do this nice set up next year!

Cons: No negatives. (Except for the heat when waiting in line, but that isn't your guys fault.)

((P.S: So sorry if this makes NO sense at all. I just got back from my first day of school and my brain is fried. X.X)

I don't see any reason to move it to a bigger location/ Mainly because it was the most disappointing dealers hall I have ever experienced. There was nothing of interest. There was not a single booth even.

I don't see any reason to move it to a bigger location/ Mainly because it was the most disappointing dealers hall I have ever experienced. There was nothing of interest. There was not a single booth even.

if it gets moved to a bigger location, it leaves room for more booths, which means more options. Which means more things of interest. The dealers hall isnt this bad every year by a long shot.

I have to personally agree that I didn't find a lot of stuff to buy, but there were a lot of options. That big jewelry booth was really interesting to paw through as I'd never seen anything like that aside from the steampunk booth. It was nice seeing kinokuniya there again though as I always enjoy their wares.

Cons:The Washington location vs Portland location did present some problems. Some people didn't want to go as soon as washington was even mentioned (probably due to the fact they didn't know where Vancouver was and thought it was further into washington).

I don't mean to sound harsh, but that's their fault for not knowing the Portland area.

Regarding the issues with the distance, there was a shuttle available. It wasn't well advertised, which the Facilities Liaison did say he hoped would be addressed for next year. (HE can't promise it because he can't guarantee that he'll be in the position to do so next year).

Regarding the chair, I hope the right for audience vote gets taken away. They had a chance, and they blew it! Those of us who did skits worked hard to entertain you guys, and many of us had hopes to win something, and you voted on a piece of furniture! I think you don't deserve the honor, again, since you can't use it properly. (On a side note, the skit that got #2 was definitely a top contender, in my opinion).

Regarding the Heritage Ballroom, the number of seats were in anticipation. Every event that I saw in there (which was most of them) needed all of those sections. It could have been possible to section off the back one for some or them, but perhaps it's better that it wasn't.

Regarding Filk's recommendation of the area's eateries, I actually tried to get something that would have had EVERY eatery in the area. It would seem that this responsibility has a specific job for the con staff, and the department that makes the con book didn't know about it (from what I understand). This year, I plan on signing up for the position and plan to submit something epic compared to this past map.

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There were a lot of really fun panels this year! I liked the way splitting up the Creation Station into various rooms allowed for more appropriate room sizing for different events.

Thank you for mentioning Creation Station, for helping found the Beta Station from which it evolved, and for revitalizing our original flagship event, Fanfic Bedtime Stories, and letting me co-helm with you, this year. 46 attendees, about double what we had in the CS in recent years, and most of them totally new to the event, with about 15 signing up to stay in touch after the event. Your Filk it Up! panel was a huge highlight of the whole year (not just the con year!) for me, and Tom the Fanboy's generous provision of the videotaping is an awesome addition thereto. I posted my Supernatural filks on my facebook and actually made some new friends out of it!

As the person who founded and managed Creation Station, I would like to emphasize (not to FilkAeris, but to everyone)that, from our very beginnings in the kumoricon_fanfiction yahoo group that I founded at my Fanfic panel and Fanfic Contest at KC 2003, our vision has always been for fan creation programming, including but not limited to fanfic writing and fanfic performance, to become so core an element of convention programming, that no convention with which we became involved would consider running con without such programming. It was *not* the vision that we specifically would always be the ones running it, nor that it would always be housed in one room. Starting a room in which we planned fan creation programming ourselves was a lovely, wonderful, perfect means to an end, an end that has been reached, in the sense that there's no way KC would eliminate fan creation prog; it's way too popular and part of the consciousness of the con.

Creation Station still exists; we just run a room at OryCon instead of Kumoricon now, and many indivdiuals who have been core over the years are still core in fan creation programming in con; our panels are just, as FilkAeris says, now able to be spread across rooms of varying sizes, to match projected turnout.

That said, I know absolutely nothing about how the art contest went this year. What materials were used? How many entries were there? What were the categories? Who won?

I also believe that there are things that could and should be done to increase participation in the fanfic contest, both in terms of having more than 10 or 11 entries, and especially, if we are going to continue online voting via the forums on fanfics, we should have more than 11 or 12 people voting, out of 4100 attendees and thousands of forum participants. What it takes -- and I know this from 8 years of experience in planning and running various fanfic contests at multiple cons -- is a lot of personal recruiting time, cultivating relationships with people who write. It's a lot of effort, but it's particularly helpful, now that there's not one room for dropping off fics (and the rules have changed so that fics are due significantly before con; no more writing them at con and turning them in, nor culling entries for the fanfic contest from bedtime stories or the immensely popular Scenes from a Hat). One way that the fanfic contest could become more viable would be if there were a dedicated staff position for Fanfic Contest Coordinator, separate from the task of coordinating fanfic panels, and if the Fanfic Contest Coordinator staff hours could be almost entirely pre-con work. Just an idea. I love the folks running Fanfic and Fan Art this year and am just trying to keep vibrant these areas of fan creation in the absence of a centralized location.

One way that the fanfic contest could become more viable would be if there were a dedicated staff position for Fanfic Contest Coordinator, separate from the task of coordinating fanfic panels, and if the Fanfic Contest Coordinator staff hours could be almost entirely pre-con work.

Fanfic Coordinator is a dedicated staff position... she just happened to also run panels at con.

One way that the fanfic contest could become more viable would be if there were a dedicated staff position for Fanfic Contest Coordinator, separate from the task of coordinating fanfic panels, and if the Fanfic Contest Coordinator staff hours could be almost entirely pre-con work.

Fanfic Coordinator is a dedicated staff position... she just happened to also run panels at con.

Yes, thank you, I think it is wonderful that there is still a Fanfic Coordinator position (and a Fan Art one, if I recall correctly). What I was suggesting was that, if the Fanfic Coordinator position, as currently defined, includes coordinating both the contest *and* all the fanfic panels, that it might be helpful if those were two separate jobs held by two separate individuals, one to focus on panels, one to focus on the contest. Simply because each of those is a lot of work, and to help allocate time to recruiting both more authors, and more voters for the online portion of the contest, which I would like to see become more widely utilized by forumgoers.